Tag Archives: Cat illustrations

Hiya! Hopefully you’re not getting too bored of my drawings cos here are some more! I’m sure sometime soon I’ll have something different to blog about, but in the meantime I don’t mind just sharing my little thoughts with you…

I hope you all enjoyed Karli’s analysis last week… I think she knows me pretty well. Merry Christmas!

5th AprilIt was Easter so obviously I had to add bunnies! Except I got carried away with the buns and ALMOST forgot to add cats. And then my cats looked like buns and my buns looked like cats.

6th AprilHappy Gloopy Day! Yeah so I decided to limit my gloopy drawings to one a week, so here is this week’s! Ooh look at that lovely blue. That was an accident.

7th AprilI guess I thought I’d been doing too much painting so I thought I’d go back to the pencil. This stated as a desk doodle. I also got an email that started ‘Hi kitten’ which I thought was the absolute cutest.

8th AprilDreaming about Disneyland is the only thing that gets me through this damn life. Have fun or fuck off.

9th AprilDon’t want to sound like an emo but this is probably the worst I’ve ever done and if I could go back in time and do it over I WOULD. Nah, no regrets. Except some. This.

11th AprilThis was done at 8am at the start of a looong train journey but I don’t know why I’m making excuses cos actually I really like this one. Someone said it looks like lemons but I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you very much.

March 22ndOK so don’t read me for my bad drawings right now, the left hand side is just a self portrait of what I think I look like and then the actual truth. #ImGross

23rdI’d been working on some of my new things so I had my paints out, yay! I super love this colour combo. I’m leaving this as a note to myself. I often find my drawings that spread across both pages create much more of a impact too – that’s another note to future me.

24th MarchThese pages are two of my favourites so far… I have these old gloopy paints I’m trying to use up which I literally just squeezed out of the tube onto the page spontaniously and then formed the painting from there, adding the details later.

25th MarchGLOOP! More gloopy paint cos after the day before I thought I was onto a good thing. IDK but I WILL be coming back to it (and not just cos I still have all this old paint).

26th MarchNEW BOOK! Yup, I’m onto my 6th book! I doodled an ice cream cat on a napkin the day before and made a note to myself to draw it the next day. pop!

27th MarchThis past weekend I was visiting Bristol for the Etsy Captain’s Summit, so this is a lovely little train drawing while the sun was shining. It didn’t shine much for the rest of the weekend though, did it?

28th MarchI was super happy cos Bristol has a Cass Art! (WHY ISN’T THERE ONE IN BRIGHTON?). I didn’t realise there was gonna be one else I would have had a list of things to buy, but I did treat myself to a little travel half pan tin and my favourite thing about it is the fold-up paintbrush. It was a busy weekend but I did manage to test them out and here’s what happened. FUN!

Meow! It’s a couple of days late but here’s a look back at the week’s daily drawings!
Last week I was viciously slammed (not really) by one of my regular blog readers at my seeming lack of enthusiasm for some of my drawings, which got me thinking a little about some of the pros and cons of the project. While I love the fact that it forces me to create something every day, sometimes on the days where inspiration doesn’t hit me in the face it can feel a bit forced, which means I end up resenting what I’ve created which means sometimes there’s not much to say. I’m thinking this is something I will work on through the year, but in the meantime I’ll try my best to keep it positive!

Now! Back to our scheduled programming!

1st MarchNow that I don’t have to work on Sundays I get to do things like watch Sunday morning cooking shows. I can’t remember which one was on but they were foraging for herbs and they had a really sharp knife. I really like sharp knives so it was in my head to draw one and that is the first thing I drew. The book is Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.

2nd MarchMost of the time when I do my daily drawings I don’t have time to get my proper paints out so I use these basic Reeve’s watercolours most of the time. The colours are super limiting so it’s always nice to try out shape and pattern with them as an under-image for the cats on top!

3rd March

Not gonna lie, this is probably one of my favourite drawings to do so far. Swearing is as fun as drawing cats. Also I think I’ve mentioned before my anti-inspirational-quote mentality…

4th MarchA bit of a doodly day but I was glad to find my pack of felt tip pens I’d forgotten about!

5th MarchJust a bit of my delayed teen angst coming through.

6th MarchCats like sitting and watching you through the grass and then at night they all meet up and talk about all the dumb things they saw you do throughout the day. Cats are better than you and they know it. That’s why all cats are creeps and I love them.

7th MarchI guess I had this word in my head from the day before but also I think this thought at least once a day. Everything is creepy. The internet is creepy. Now turn off your computer and go outside and play.

Pinch punch first of the month! Happy March everyone!
So two months of daily drawings are done and dusted, bring on the next ten! Here’s a look back at the last seven days of my little sketchbook of kitties.

February 22nd

This was my last day of work! Yay! This was the last day I had to pre-paint and background to be able to make an interesting drawing in my lunch break! The lyrics are FKA Twigs which I have in my head constantly and was probably listening to at the time of painting it.

23rd FebruaryHmm I hate when I end up doing pages like these, not much to em is there. I guess they’re OK to look at.

24th FebruaryAlso I need to stop just taking pictures from my phone cos most of them are blurry without me realising until I get them up here.

25th FebruaryI get influenced really easily by whatever music I’m listening to at the time of drawing. This was a Beyonce day. (most days are tho am I right). I actually really like these pages but the one on the left took forever to paint. Well not really that long but I am busy and impatient.

26th FebruaryI had this little monkey in my head and just had to draw him. He might appear again because I thought he was pretty cute.

27th FebruaryAnother blurry one, soz. Just cats N plants really.

28th FebruaryI really didn’t know where I was going with this one even while I was painting all the cats and I wasn’t really happy with it but then I added the text and it all came together. In other news I found that shark tooth on the beach at the weekend! So cool!!!!

You may remember that last year I took part in a blog hop, where I answered three questions and then nominated three more people to answer the same via their blogs. Well that was lots of fun so I was happy to be nominated again (this time by designosaur) for a new hop, this time one created by and for the Brighton Etsy Team (of which I am a leader, yay!) SO! Here are some questions I’ve tried to answer for you…

1. What inspired you to start your business or Etsy shop?
I opened my first etsy shop back in 2009 when I was an art student making weird knitted things. It didn’t really go to plan and when I didn’t sell anything I didn’t renew my listings and forgot the shop existed. Three years later in 2012 I had graduated and moved to Brighton, needing an outlet for my creativity and having met some awesome people like DB Illustrations, I started again! There was more weird knitting, but thankfully that’s gone now. Also thankfully people now actually buy my things!

2. We’re looking at goals in the Brighton Etsy Team this month, can you share one of your goals for the next six months?
My main goal is to get more seasonally organised in advance. I want to be ready for everything around 3 months before they happen… so far I’m a little behind as Mother’s Day is less than a month away and my card is yet to be listed in my shop (it’s coming really soon!), but Mothers Day in the USA isn’t until May so I’m ahead somewhere! Just as long as I have my Christmas prep started in July I’ll be happy! (No jokes…)

3. What are you working on at the moment?
I have three collaborations in the works with designosaur (which we started back last June… it’s almost ready though!), porcelain artist Little Birdy and animal hood grand masters Merrimaking (they were making the hoods before anyone else dontchaknow). They’ll all be released in the next month or so and then I’m focusing on new things! New designs, new products. I’ve also been doing a lot of drawing and painting so hoping to get more original works for sale.

4. If you could give other sellers or someone looking to start their own craft business one piece of advice, what would you say?
Don’t expect everything to happen at once, it takes a bit of work to get started. Make sure you’re actually selling good things people want to buy. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t make your first etsy sale within an hour. Think big! And don’t be a copycat.

Hope you enjoyed reading this mini interview, I now have to nominate some more people from the Brighton Etsy Team. First up I would like to choose illustrator extraordinaire Cheska of Mooshpie, Secondly I nominate Lucy of Peas and Needles who I don’t know personally but I found through the BtnEtsy blogroll (she has the most beautiful blog! blog envy!). Finally I choose clothesmaking duo Emperor’s New Clothes. Answer the questions above and nominate three more people to join in!

Meow! I can’t believe six weeks have already gone past since I first started the #Tobydrawscats365 project! That’s 46 drawings so far! I have to say that this week has probably got my favourite selection of drawings so far…

8th FebruaryFollowing on from the last two weeks where I pre-painted my pages before going to work, this time I used pen to create the colourful backgrounds in advance of drawing the cats on my lunch break. I really can’t emphasise enough how boring this day at work was, so these drawings were somewhat of an escape…

9th FebruaryI’m still working on my fine liner skills, I want to get more confident at using them without pre-sketching. I will probably be forever a wonky-wobbly drawer, but that’s OK.

10th FebruaryOn Monday I went to see one of my favourite bands, Slow Club, for like the 7th (or maybe 8th) time. I seriously love them loads and each time live they are great. They’re the perfect mix of fun and melancholy for me.

11th FebruaryThis was just a bit of fun thinking about cats wearing my clothes. This time they’re wearing some of my favourite Lazy Oaf pieces, my banana shirt and Fuck This bobble hat.

12th FebruaryWell I just felt like having a little paint. Was playing around a bit with blank space. I don’t know if anyone else did but I just really liked that guy on the right.

13th FebruaryFriday 13th yo.

14th FebruaryIt was Valentine’s Day wasn’t it! Had to do something a bit mushy/gross. ❤ </3

As always I hope you’ve enjoyed this look back at the week’s daily drawings! Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for a new drawing each day!

Meow! It’s one day late, but here’s a look back at the last week of daily drawings!

Sunday 1st February

Pinch punch first of the month! Following on from last week when I pre-painted my pages before work, I did the same again this Sunday. I was pretty busy on my lunch break eating chocolate fingers so I did almost forget to draw, so this was quite a quick sketch. Affection aggression is a real and present danger.

2nd FebruaryMessy desk + messy mind = bad mood sketches

3rd FebruaryI got these super cute Disney presser transfers from the charity shop and I’ve been obsessed with putting them everywhere. It was super fun seeing how they would interact with my drawings!

4th FebruaryToday my shoes were more interesting than my drawing…

5th FebruaryWhen I was younger I had a cactus on my windowsill. My most beloved and missed cat Squiffy once took a big bite of the cactus. Neither cat nor cactus were harmed, but the cactus did grow in a funny shape afterwards where the bite was.

6th FebruaryMore ramblings from my crazy little head.

7th FebruaryThis was just experiments with pattern. Doodle doodle doodle!